


Leslie Knope Goes to Prom

by c00kie



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-05
Updated: 2015-08-05
Packaged: 2018-04-13 01:12:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4502082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c00kie/pseuds/c00kie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No one is more surprised than Leslie Knope when Ben Wyatt asks her to prom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Leslie Knope Goes to Prom

**Author's Note:**

> Originally on tumblr. Enjoy!

The thing about Ben Wyatt was he was a star. He was the captain of the JV baseball team, captain of the math team, openly bisexual, junior class president, captain of the sci-fi and board game clubs, which should have made him a unpopular but only seemed to endear him to the masses, and on and off boyfriend to Cindy Eckhert, the coolest girl in school. 

Leslie Knope, however, was safely stuck in the middle of the high school hierarchy, somewhere above the stoners Harris and Brett and below Eduardo, the Venezuelan transfer student. She was on the debate team and the Pawnee History society and was a class representative, which was the position they gave the losers of the actual elections so no one would feel bad. 

So there was absolutely no reason why Ben would be staring at her while she ate Friday night waffles with Ann. Or looking at at her at all.

That’s not to say Ben was one of those popular guys who refused to talk to people below his station. He was actually the kind of guy who was friendly to everyone, including her. 

But staring? With eyeballs? After a big victory over Eagleton? 

The facts, as Leslie saw them were as followed:

Cindy Eckhert: Tall, brunette, played the bass in a Pixies cover band. 

Leslie Knope: Short, blonde, once crashed into Ben while on roller skates. 

“Maybe he has a concussion,” Leslie guessed. 

“Or maybe he likes you.”

Ann was a beautiful specimen of humanity but she was also extremely wrong. 

“There is no way he likes me.” Leslie really hoped he couldn’t hear her over his teammates. 

“Really, then why is he coming over here?

Leslie jumped and turned, and sure enough, Ben was walking straight toward their booth. 

“How do I look?” Leslie asked Ann, who just gave her a thumbs up. 

Okay so maybe Leslie did have a slight crush on him. Grand Canyon sized slight.

“Hey, Leslie, Ann.”

“Hello, Ben,” Leslie said, wincing at her stiffness. 

Ben just smiled. “Can I talk to you?” The word alone went unsaid, but not unheard. 

Leslie looked at Ann, silently begging her for advice, but Ann just grinned and stood up, saying, “I’m gonna go talk to Chris.”

“He’s going to talk her ear off,” Ben said, taking Ann’s seat. 

Leslie laughed. “Is he still making you take all those supplements?”

“And he shows up at my house at five in the morning to jog.”

“Gross.”

“Yeah, my dad slammed the door in his face.” 

Leslie grinned, the butterflies in her stomach beginning to calm. “So, you wanted to talk?” 

“Yeah, so um, you know prom is coming up-”

Leslie held up her hand, knowing what he was about to say. “Ben, I am going to tell you the same thing I’ve told everyone else. I’m just on the committee, I don’t actually have any power over the votes. So if you want to win prom king you’ll just have to campaign like everyone else.” 

“Actually, I don’t care about that.” 

“You don’t?”

“No. I was actually trying to ask you if you want to go with me.”

Leslie’s brain froze for a moment. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Will you go to Prom with me?” 

“Is this a joke?” Ben wasn’t the kind of guy who played jokes, but Leslie couldn’t be too careful. After all, it made no sense that he ask her to the second most important dance of the year. (Homecoming, Prom and the Halloween Blast, respectively.) 

“No joke.”

“But what about Cindy?”

“She’s going with someone else.”

“Oh. So I’m second choice? Well I’m sorry she turned you down but I won’t be your second choice, I don’t care if you are Ben Wyatt, best butt.”

Ben just stared at her, eyebrow raised. “Please tell me I wasn’t voted best butt in the year book.”

“It was a write in.” That she wrote. No one needed to know that though. 

He sighed. “Right. Well I’m actually asking you. I didn’t ask Cindy, or anyone else, so you are my first choice.” 

“Oh.” She felt rather ashamed for her outburst, but then shame gave way to confusion. “Wait. Why?”

“I like you,” he answered. “And to be honest my friends are making gross faces at us so if you could say yes so I can go make them stop, that would be great.”

She was still very confused by all of this, but it wasn’t every day a boy as beautiful as Ben Wyatt asked you to prom. “Yes.”

“Great. Um, so I guess I’ll call you and we can work out the details.”

“Okay,” she said, and he smiled at her again before leaving. 

Moments later, Ann returned, looking like she just came back from a battle. 

“What happened to you?” Leslie asked. 

“The secret to dealing with Chris is to kiss him until he shuts up.”

“Ben’s going to be upset he didn’t think of that before.”

“Speaking of, what did you two talk about?” 

“Um, he asked me to prom.”

Ann jumped in her seat and clapped. “Yay!”

It was Ann’s reaction, and the shock slowly falling away that made Leslie realize the truth. She was going to prom with Ben. 

She was so screwed. 

The next day he showed up at her house. “Hey.”

“Are you here to take it back?”

He squinted at her and shook his head. “I know you’re trying to get out of it, but it’s no use, Knope, you’re going to prom with me.”

Leslie giggled. “Okay.”

“Yeah, so I was thinking, prom is actually a month way, and I don’t want it to be our first date. First dates are awkward enough, right?” He laughed, and it was then that Leslie realized he might be as nervous as she was.

It was also then that she realized she was wearing an old t shirt and a pair of shorts and was holding the broom because it was cleaning day. 

“Um, yeah.”

“So I know you’re busy, but do you think we could maybe go see a movie tonight?”

“Sure.” 

“Great. Five thirty?”

“Sure.” She was incapable of saying anything else. 

“Great,” Ben said, then he did something Leslie did not expect and kissed her on her cheek. “Calcu-lator.”

She closed the door just as her mom came in from the kitchen. “New boyfriend?”

“Um, maybe?”

“Is he the cute one who took his shoes off and held them in his hand when I met him?”

“Yeah.” 

“Good, I like him. Now stop daydreaming about making out with him and help me.”

Leslie decided to do both. 

The second they were done cleaning, Leslie called Ann, who immediately came over to help Leslie get ready.

“Wear this,” Ann shoved one of Leslie’s dresses at her. She trusted Ann’s judgement so she put on the dress and then let Ann do her hair and make up. When Ann was done, Leslie looked at her reflection and saw someone else. It looked like her, but a hotter version. 

Leslie knew she was pretty, but hot? No. 

“He’s going to die when he sees you,” Ann declared. 

Leslie didn’t know if that was true. She just hoped her stomach stopped doing flip flops. 

Leslie had been on a few first dates before, and she’d even had a boyfriend for three weeks until his mother broke up with her for him. But as she stood next to Ben in the concession line, listening as he described the plot of Twin Peaks to her, it felt different. She was still nervous, but it was the good kind of nervous where her heart jumped every time he smiled at her. And when his fingers brushed hers as he reached for the popcorn during the previews, her skin tingled in a way it never had with other boys.

And after, when he bought her a chocolate dipped cone from Dairy Queen, it was all she could do not to grab his face and kiss him. 

Instead, he did it on her front porch, making her feel like sleeping beauty come back to life while the moths buzzed beside her head until her mom turned on the light inside. 

“I’m kind of busy tomorrow,” he said, her lips still tingling, “but I’ll call you sometime in the afternoon. We’re not done with this discussion.”

She knew he meant the debate over Washington’s legacy, but she hoped he also meant the one their lips were having. She rather liked both. 

“Okay.” 

Her mom was on the couch, her feet up on the coffee table next to a glass of chilled white wine while she did catch up work and listened to Marvin Gaye. “Well,” she said as Leslie leaned against the front door, unable to stop smiling. “I assume it went well?”

“Yeah.” 

“Good,” she said, leaning down to pick up her glass. “I like that one.”

On Sunday, he called around four thirty. They talked until nine. 

On Monday, he waited for her at her locker and held her hand as they walked to class. She could feel the stares, the open wonderment of why he was with her.

Leslie didn’t know either. 

But she wasn’t going to question it. Not when he kissed her like it was all he wanted to do.

She wondered if she should send Cindy a gift basket for teaching him how to kiss. 

“What do you think of this one?” Ann asked, holding a blue dress against her body. 

“I love it.”

“You said that about the last six,” Ann said, putting it back. 

“Well I can’t help it! You look beautiful in everything!” 

Ann smiled and gathered her choices to take back into the fitting rooms. “Wow. That’s a lot of red.”

Leslie looked down at the various red dresses on her arm. “It’s my power color, Ann.” 

“You do look good in it.” 

It took five more stores and what felt like fifty more dresses before Ann finally found the right dress. 

Leslie found hers in three. 

Before Leslie knew what happened, she no longer questioned Ben’s place in her life. He came over after practice, they studied together, taking frequent breaks to make out. He stayed for dinner, helping to clean up after. They cuddled on the couch, watching moves on Saturday afternoons. It felt natural and easy. 

So of course it didn’t surprise her when Cindy cornered her in the girl’s restroom. 

“He might be taking you to prom, but he’s mine. He’s always going to be mine.”

Leslie knew this. Ben and Cindy. They were peanut butter and chocolate. They made sense together. 

“Then why are you going to prom with someone else?”

“That’s none of your business,” Cindy snapped. “Just, know it’s not going to last between you two. It could be a week, it could be a month, but eventually, he will come back to me. He always does.”

Leslie waited for Cindy to leave before she cried. 

As hard as Leslie tried not to let Cindy’s words bother her, they did. They took up space in her mind, repeating themselves until it was all she could think about. When he kissed her during a study break in their bedroom, she could only picture him wanting to kiss Cindy instead. When his hands brushed her breast, she imagined him preferring Cindy’s. 

“Are you okay?”

“I don’t want to get between you and Cindy.”

Ben sat up and ran his hand over his face. Leslie sat up too, tucking her knee into her chest.

“Look, I’m going to be honest, things with Cindy and I are complicated-”

“I don’t know if I want to compete with complicated.” 

“You’re not,” he said, taking her hands in his. She stared at them, mesmerized by the difference in size. “You’re my girlfriend. I don’t want Cindy. I haven’t for a long time. And that’s just something she’s going to have to get used to.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” He kissed her again and they fell back on the floor. 

She just wished she felt the same. 

The night of prom, Ben picked her up wearing a black tuxedo, his hair combed down. After he slipped her corsage onto her wrist, she reached up and messed up his hair, ignoring his protests.

“Be you.”

“In that case,” Ben said, looking Leslie over. “Okay, I can’t think of anything you need to change. You’re perfect.”

“Really?” She did feel rather pretty in her red taffeta dress. 

“Yes.” 

Ann was a vision in teal as she danced by with a boy Leslie didn’t know. Next to her Donna got her groove on with a football player. There were lights and streamers and everyone looked amazing. 

Cindy though, was alone. 

“She lied to you.” 

He looked over his shoulder and sighed. “I didn't ask her.”

“What?” 

“I didn’t ask her. I told you I only asked you.”

“I know but-”

“But nothing. I only knew she said she was coming with someone because Chris mentioned it. I didn’t ask.”

“Oh.” Leslie took another glance at he and suddenly, Leslie completely understood Cindy. “She wanted you to fight for her.”

“I’m starting to get the feeling you want me to fight for her,” Ben said, making Leslie wince at his tone. 

“Not at all. I just, I get it. I would be upset too if the situation was reversed.”

“It wouldn’t be though.”

“What?”

“If I had you to begin with,” Ben said, drawing her closer, “I’d never want to let go.”

She kissed him, meaning it to be soft and simple, but it soon became a lot more, until a teacher broke them apart. 

They left right after Andy was announced as prom king. 

“I’m sorry you didn’t win.”

“I’m not,” Ben said, opening her door for her. When he got into his seat, he turned to her. “So, where do you want to go?” 

“A hotel.” 

Ben swallowed. “Um.”

The way Leslie saw it, it was a romantic night, she felt beautiful, and she was with a beautiful boy. This was the kind of thing they wrote poetry about. There was no way she was going to let it go to waste. 

“Unless you don’t want to.” 

Ben exhaled, started the car. “Oh, I want to.”

Leslie’s first time was clumsy and awkward and she was really glad at least one of them seemed to know what they were doing, because she’s watched porn and read many books on the subject and had many late night slumber party discussions with Ann and Donna, but it was really nothing like she pictured it would be. For one thing it took her forever to figure out where to put her legs and her head kept bumping into the headboard until he pulled her down and then when she started to climb she was so surprised she nearly jumped and pushed him away.

She was told it was nearly impossible for girl’s to have orgasms their first time.

Ben just picked her up, holding her against his chest as they rocked together, eyes and lips connected until everything turned white there was nothing but the feeling of warm pleasure. 

She really needed to send Cindy a fruit basket.


End file.
